Overview
Over time, Cost Rates for members of your team will change - Effective Dates are how you track and apply when those Costs take effect. In this article, we'll explain what Effective Dates are, and how they are used!
What are Effective Dates? | What is an Effective Date? Check out this section! |
It's vital to know how Effective Dates are applied over time! This section will break this down. | |
Where can I set Effective Dates? |
Check here to see where you actually add or change a Effective Date. |
Cost Log |
It's important to track when each Cost starts and ends - find out more here! |
Export/Upload CSV |
Streamline changes with Export and Upload CSV functions - more info in this section. |
What are Effective Dates?
An Effective Date is the date in time at which the change to Cost Rate will take effect. This allows you to set checkpoints for changes that occur over time, so that a Cost Rate which applies today isn't necessarily the Cost Rate that applied to a Person's Plans/Actuals last year and won't necessarily apply indefinitely.
Note - Cost Rate vs. Bill Rate
Keep in mind that Cost Rate (what the Person costs to pay per hour) is different from the Bill Rate (what you charge the Client). The Bill Rate you charge is determined by the Rate Card you apply to a particular Project, so it is not affected by Effective Dates, since Bill Rates will vary from Rate Card to Rate Card.
Once a cost rate is assigned to an individual that cost rate will apply to all projects. If you need different rates assigned based on project, than this would be done by adjusting Bill Rates at the project level or through rate cards.
Past, Present and Future
Effective Dates mean that the day a Cost starts is not the day you made the change.
Each time you make change Cost, you'll be asked for a date. If you enter:
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- A historical date - The Cost will be applied from that date forward until the next Effective Date.
- Today's date - The Cost will start being applied today.
- A future date - The Cost will start being applied on that date.
When catching up on past Cost Rate changes, you'll changes with past Effective Dates that won't impact the Current Cost Rate. If you want to predict Cost Rate changes you expect to occur, you can add a future Effective Date. Accidentally add the wrong Effective Date for a Cost Rate change? Not a problem - we have a Log of Cost Rate changes that not only shows the Dates each Cost Rate began, but also allows you to remove Effective Dates!
For example, let's say you want to add an Person whose Cost Rate was hired on September 1, 2024 for $95, but on October 1, Cost changed to $100. You expect Cost to change again at the start of next year to $105. You would:
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- Add the Person with a Cost Rate of $95
- Then, update their Cost Rate to $100 and select October 1, 2024 when prompted.
- Finally, update their Cost Rate a second time, to $105. When prompted, select January 1, 2025.
The Person's Cost Rate will then be applied to Projects as $95 from Sept 1-30, $100 from October 1-December 31, and $105 from January 1, 2025 onward.
*Parallax Tip - New Effective Dates don't replace old Effective Dates!
Think of Cost as a line stretching to infinity. Each time you add an Effective Date, you're adding another point, creating a new line segment. Consider this example:
- You start with a Cost of $100 on August 1.
- Then, you add a Cost of $200, starting October 1.
- Then you add a Cost of $150 starting September 1.
The October Cost of $100 doesn't go away when you added the September Cost of $150. Instead the Rate will change from ($100 in Aug > $200 in Oct) to ($100 in Aug > $150 in Sept > $200 in Oct).
The only way an Effective Date goes away is by deleting it in the Cost Log (see below).
Where can I set Effective Dates?
Effective Dates will be selected in the same place where you make Rate Changes. Since Cost Rates can be set in three different ways, depending on who you want to affect, we'll outline them here, starting with the broadest changes and working our way to the narrowest.
- Default Cost Rate - The Organizational Default is the Cost Rate that will be applied to any Person with no Role and no custom Cost Rate. It is set on the Settings > Roles Page.
- Role Cost Rate - This is the Cost Rate that will be applied to any Person within a Role that has no custom Cost Rate. It is set on when editing a Role from the Settings > Roles Page.
- Person Custom Cost Rate - This is an individual Cost Rate that will be applied only to a specific Person, and is set when editing the Profile under Settings > People.
Regardless of which of these places you are editing, you will now be asked to select an effective Date each time you update the Effective Rate. In each of these places, you'll also see the Effective Date Log where you can see the Effective Dates that each change takes place, and Delete incorrect Effective Dates.
What does it look like?
Here's a couple of quick examples of what the process of updating an Effective Date will look like.
When updating Roles:
- Editing the Default Cost Rate (or checking the Log for Default Cost Rate) will occur at the top of the page.
- Editing the Role Cost Rate will use the "..." menu on the right side of the Role
- In either case, after making Changes to the Date in the Edit module and Saving, a New Module will ask you the for the Effective Date.
- If you select a Past or Future Date, the Rate in the Cost Rate column won't change - instead it will be in the Log.
- However, if your Default or a Role or Person has an Upcoming change, you'll see an "!" alert to let you know to check the log!
When updating People:
To set an Person's Cost Rate Effective Date, the process is the same as it previously was - just Edit the Person in Settings > People:
- Make sure you've selected "Override with a custom cost rate"
- Enter the desired Cost Rate
- Select "Save"
- You'll be given the same module to select the desired Effective Date
Effective Date Log
Regardless of whether you're editing the Cost Rate for your Default, the Role or Person's Custom Cost Rate, the Log will look essentially the same, with three separate parts:
- Year Filter - This is the year you're Viewing/Editing Cost Rate Changes for.
- Effective Dates Table - This will show you all of the Effective Dates and the Rates that take/took/will take effect on those Dates.
- Delete - This Trash icon is where you'll delete any Effective Dates that are unwanted
These Dates are chronological based on the Date, not when you entered them - so you don't delete an Effective Date just because you entered them out of order!
Export/Upload CSV
We understand you may have lots of Cost Rate changes that need to make it into Parallax and we wanted to make that as easy as possible. To facilitate this, you can use the Export CSV function to export a CSV file containing all of your current People and the Effective Dates of their Current Rates. All you need to do is add line entries for any additional Custom Cost Rates along with the Effective Dates for those Rates, then upload them using the Upload CSV function!*
Important Note:
The CSV Upload function can only add Cost Rate entries, it cannot delete them - so you'll want to double-check the Cost Rates and Effective Dates before doing an Upload. You can always delete Cost Rates manually from the Log, but there isn't currently a way to do this en masse.